Lakbay Laguna-Quezon 2007

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Lakbay Laguna-Quezon 2007, Day by Day Christian Mnistries. On a friday, we set out for the towns of San Pablo, Laguna and Tiaong, Quezon. Our Lakbay Ministry organized a Lakbay Kulinarya Tagala (Culinary of Southern Tagalog). We also visited the home (cum workshop) of local artists in the region.

Most of us who joined have travelled to these places. I'm curious to what's new in these places since I have not been travelling here for quite sometime. Times have changed, there are a lot of things to see and do here. They have an organization which promotes tourism for this southern sojourn. Do get a copy of "Viaje del Sol", "The Way of the Sun from San Pablo to Quezon", a map (brochure).

Our first stop was breakfast at Kusina Salud, San Pablo, Laguna. This place is owned by Ms. Patis Tesoro, who is well known for her fine embroidery of local dress. It is very vintage in looks. There is a huge Buddha statue, an old television set, "recycled look" or "retro look" furniture in the dining area.

They have a very interesting menu, there's "kalabaw" (carabao meat). But we have the "normal" thing for breakfast, fried rice, tapa, longganisa, scrambled egg. . . We were also treated to a food demo on "Pako" (fern) salad. This is a must-try food. There's not many restaurant that offers "pako" salad back in the city.

After breakfast, we toured around the place, they have a souvenir shop by the main entrance. It has a lot of vintage things for sale and the hard wood furnitures are for sale too.

The restaurant was full with "breakfast" guests by the time we left for our next stop, Carlito's Workshop. The brass sculptor is Mr. Carlito Ortega. He has a large residential place with a workshop at the back of his residence. He lectured about art and demonstrated how he works on his brass sculpture. He is friendly and entertaining. We have our morning snack after the demo and it's just about an hour after we had breakfast. We had "ginataang bilo-bilo and suman". It's a wholeday of eating so we can't go on an eating binge every meal or we won't be able to taste the other food stuff in the afternoon.

It's quite a long ride for lunch stop in Tiaong, Quezon. We had a rest stop in "Graceland". Yes, it's named after the Graceland of Elvis Presley. There's a Memphis Cafe and Bar and Graceland Drive; it's a resort. We had lunch in Kamayan sa Palaisdaan. It was full of diners on a friday lunch. There are huts floating over the man-made "lake". We had a buffet of snail, sisig, ensaladang mannga, sinigang na hipon, inihaw na tilapia.

Mount Banahaw can be seen from the restaurant. It was a cloudy day but it didn't rain until late in the afternoon when we were in Ugu Bigyan's Pottery. He is a famous potter, and his works commands a price. His pottery is world class, very interesting design. At this place they demonstrated how to make a "kulawo", it's a local delicacy made of grated coconut mixed with "puso ng saging". It taste good. We had an afternoon snack here of "pancit hab-hab", "ginataang bilo-bilo", "sago't gulaman" drink.

The rain began it's downpour as we are getting to go back to Manila late in the afternoon. Take a trip to Southern Tagalog, sample their local foods, check out the local artists worksshop and relax in the homey atmosphere of their places.

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